Kate Cox

Athene is quite a character, for a player. He rose to a certain kind of internet fame thanks to World of Warcraft, declaring himself the World's Best Paladin. After leaving WoW, he moved on to Starcraft II and in recent months, he's taken to League of Legends.

He's provocative and potty-mouthed (the video above contains NSFW language), but he's also very, very popular. His YouTube channel has well over 600,000 subscribers, his videos have over 300 million cumulative views, and he's sponsored by Razer (manufacturer of PC gaming peripherals).

Clearly, Athene thrives on attention, but he's trying now to put all the eyes he draws worldwide onto a humanitarian crisis and charitable giving. This week through the charity crowdfunding site FundRazr, he's launched a project called ShareCraft 2012. The goal of ShareCraft? To raise $1 million in 100 days, all to go toward famine relief in the Horn of Africa.

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ShareCraft donations will go to Save the Children, an independent organization unaffiliated with any single governmental or religious organization. Save the Children also has a fund matching program currently running with DC Comics for famine alleviation donations.

Competitive gaming begets competitive fundraising, and the ShareCraft charity drive comes complete with leaderboards and sponsored prizes for participants who draw the most involvement and the highest donations.

Gamers have shown countless times that when they give back, they go big. The ShareCraft launch video has drawn in nearly 2 million views in just the first two days. With that kind of momentum, it seems likely that the charity drive will reach its goals. And no matter how one feels about games, gamers, or personalities like Athene, it's nothing but great to see help going to a population so badly in need.